Utah State @ Tennessee preview

Tennessee will try for its 20th consecutive victory in a home opener when it meets Utah State on Sunday. The rebuilding Volunteers, who feature 28 underclassmen on their season-opening depth chart, are 15-1 against Mountain West Conference teams - 7-0 in season openers - with the loss to Wyoming 13-7 in 2008. The Aggies, who won the MWC Mountain Division last season over Boise State, opens on the road for the fifth time in the last six seasons.

Don't expect Utah State to be intimidated even though they are playing an SEC team on the road in front of the largest crowd in school history (Neyland Stadium holds 102,455). Star quarterback Chuckie Keeton, the preseason MWC Offensive Player of the Year, said he is 100 percent after missing the final half of the 2013 season with a knee injury. Keeton nearly engineered an upset at defending national champion Auburn in his first college start in 2011 when the Tigers needed two touchdowns and an onside kick recovery in the final 2:07 to pull out a 42-38 victory.

TIME: 7 p.m. ET, SEC Network. LINE: Tennessee -6

ABOUT UTAH STATE (2013: 9-5): The Aggies return 11 of 22 starters, including six that earned all-Mountain West honors a year ago. Junior linebacker Kyler Fackrell, senior defensive end B.J. Larsen and senior linebacker Zach Virgil were all-second team picks and anchor a defense that held five of its last seven opponents to 14 points or less and surrendered 106.7 rushing yards per game - eighth in the nation. Keeton, being promoted for the Heisman Trophy by the school, was second in the nation with 17 touchdown passes through five games as a junior before tearing both his ACL and MCL on Oct. 4 against Brigham Young.

ABOUT TENNESSEE (2013: 5-7): The Volunteers return only 10 returning starters from a squad that lost four of its final five games in their first season under coach Butch Jones. Tennessee is the only team in FBS football that doesn't return a starter on neither line, which has Jones concerned heading into the opener. "I'm worried about the shock value of our team," Jones told reporters.

EXTRA POINTS

1. Senior Justin Worley, who went 4-3 as a starter in 2013 before breaking his thumb in the first half of a 45-10 loss at Alabama, was named the starting quarterback for Tennessee.

2. Vols LB A.J. Johnson, a preseason All-American, has 324 career tackles - nine per game.

3. Utah State has won 15 straight games when it has a 100-yard rusher.

PREDICTION: Tennessee 21, Utah State 17